Too much of the white stuff

Yesterday I went to see Force Majeure at the cinema, your standard Swedish drama about a family who find themselves in an avalanche incident and discover that the power of nature is as nothing in its destructive force compared to the power of the human response. Highly recommended, really rather funny, and containing one of the best beards on film since The Ten Commandments. I bumped into white_hart afterwards, and I don't think she would object to my saying that whether the film makes you want to go skiing will depend entirely on whether you already like skiing*.

In the way of things, I have reacted by watching avalanche videos on YouTube, preferably not ones of idiots boasting of their lucky escapes - sadly, most fatal avalanches are caused by people. Instead, have a video of an absolutely enormous non-fatal avalanche set off by humans in a sensible deliberate way (the explosions are c. 27 sec in). It must have been staggering to watch IRL.

*I like skiing. That said, my enjoyment of skiing comes very much second to my desire to avoid avalanches, which makes cross-country particularly suitable as the terrain that is suitable for cross-country off-piste is pretty much de facto non-avalanche-able. My desire to ski in avalanche terrain is about as much as my desire to go black water caving.